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First Strike, Part II
The J'rathi fighter, JDF Three, glides through the gasses of the nebula swiftly on it's patrol. The disk-like shape of the ship seems to be designed to handle the gasses and almost ride them as if it were flying inside a planet's atmosphere. The single ion turret on the top of the ship constantly turns, as if tracking an orbiting target. A strong human voice comes from the J'rathi's communications array, "This is JDF Three, completing our patrol.. looks like nothing's out here today." he says simply, angling the ship around to begin the long trek back to the J'rathi home planet. At first, nothing *is* out there in the swirling expanse of the nebula. But company soon arrives just behind JDF Three in the form of a Victory-class star destroyer, emerging from hyperspace in a flash of blue light. Dozens of TIE fighters spill from the belly of the wedge-shaped warship like deadly stinging insects from a massive hive, and they swarm after the departing J'rathi fighter. For the moment, most likely due to the interference to sensors from the nebula cloud, the star destroyer holds its fire. "What the--" comes a female voice, obviously that of a copilot, as the pilot already begins evasive manuevers, ducking in behind a wisp of nebula gasses. The communication resumes after the fighter fades from sight momentarily. "Three here, looks like I spoke too early. We've got dozens of fighters, and a Victory-class Star Destroyer out here. We're bringing them back home, give them a warm welcome." she explains, as the slow fighter continues to power through the gasses. It's ion cannon swivels about to lock on to it's pursuers, and powerful blue-white blasts of energy are unleashed at one of the TIEs. The targeted TIE fighter is struck, crackling with tendrils of sparking blue-white energy as it spirals out of control and strikes another pursuing fighter. Angled wing panels twirl off in different directions as the fighters explode from the collision. But the numbers simply aren't on JDF Three's side. The TIE pilots in at least three fighters are able to get a visual on the enemy fighter, and they open fire with their laser cannons, crimson beams lancing inevitably toward the aft quadrant of JDF Three. The J'rathi fighter dissappears behind another cloud of nebula gasses, only to emerge with it's aft engines torn away by the combined firepower from the three TIE Fighters. Sparks flying, it spins out of control deeper into the thick nebula. As it dissappears, however, new shapes knife out in a chevron formation. A J'rathi Djalin-class cruiser spearheads a retribution against the first wave of fighters, flanked on either side by a pair of J'rathi fighters. The five vessels each choose different targets, and thin azure beams lance out from their hulls towards several of the TIE Fighters. The Cruiser fades from sight after this salvo is delivered, the only evidence of it's presence being the hole it left in the formation, which quickly breaks apart to pursue various other of the ample targets. Now that the J'rathi starships and fighters are engaging the star destroyer and its swarming TIEs, new flashes of blue light start puffing through the roiling nebula clouds, like summer lightning ... or colorful flak explosions. The intermittent illumination occurs in a rough circle around the J'rathi worldship and its parent planet. Emerging from the swirling dust clouds come the looming wedge shapes of 30 star destroyers - each one painted a sleek, matte-black: The nefarious Sith Fleet. They array themselves into a tighter circle, a metal noose, around the worldship, and open fire with turbolaser batteries. They seem intent on battering the worldship and destroying anything that might get in the crossfire. Meanwhile, dozens of TIE fighters come spiraling out from the bays of each star destroyer, prepared to engage the J'rathi fleet. The J'rathi fleet, however, seems not to have engaged in full just yet. While the first small group of fighters is entangled in a battle with the TIEs, the other fighters have yet to be seen. That is, until one of the Star Destroyers of the Sith Fleet is gutted by a neat cross-section of azure beams, and a J'rathi Dreadnaught passes past it, it's turbolasers already accurately blasting TIE Fighters as it passes on the outside of the chaos. The first Victory-class Star Destroyer that appeared now finds it's way blocked by a similar foreboding shape as a dreadnaught moves down to take up a path directly in front of it, it's bow already glowing the bright blue color that foreshadows it's firing sequence. The Worldship, however, seems to be holding up fairly well against this combined firepower. Although it's main shield is down, hundreds of thin azure beams slice at the angry clouds of TIE fighters, while similarily huge numbers of J'rathi torpedoes spew out of it's massive flight decks, most getting caught in the crossfire. The Victory-class star destroyer initially engages evasive action, its flight crew struggling to drive it nose downward relative to the J'rathi dreadnaught. But it's not fast enough. The deadly beams of the dreadnaught scorch through the hull of the star destroyer, gutting it viciously, ripping through life support controls and power stations under searing flashes of blue light. The star destroyer, lifeless and dark, descends in a slow spiral into the swirling miasma of dust and plasma like a sinking sea vessel plunging beneath the waves. Then, from out of the clouds behind where the VSD had been, comes a blue-gray wedge of metal that just keeps on coming - a sleek, exceedingly long needle of terror: The super star destroyer Executor, which opens fire on the dreadnaught with turbolaser batteries. The dreadnaught, in turn, fires it's own turbolaser batteries at the Executor, which have a similar effect to launching spitballs at the massive ship. It attempts to dive away, following the wreckage of the VSD, but the blasts just continually hammer away at the much smaller ship's shields until they finally break through, ripping massive holes in the dreadnaught's superstructure. As the dreadnaught begins to finally build up another blast from it's pulse cannons, several ion bolts from the Executor crackle against the dreadnaught's pulse cannon emitters. The entire ship goes black for a moment, before erupting in several vicious explosions which send charred and twisted metal in all directions. Two other Dreadnaughts knife from hidden positions around the Imperial fleet, making attack runs against the overwhelming numbers of black-painted Star Destroyers. Another two fall lifelessly from the bombardment circle, and a third succumbs to miniscule blasts from dozens of J'rathi torpedoes finding their marks. The Worldship, however, begins to go dark as more and more of the turbolaser blasts reach it's hull and tear armor plating apart. The encircling star destroyers of the Sith Fleet, now fewer in number but still numerous enough to keep pounding at the worldship if their commanders chose to do so, cease firing and start arcing around, turning their thrust cones to the planet J'ra and rumbling away into the quagmire of the nebula. The TIE fighters also silence their guns and match courses with their home destroyers, leaving the crippled worldship, the planet and the surviving defenders behind. Confusion is evident from the defenders as comm chatter breaks out across all of the military frequencies. "What are they doing?" is one of the more common expressions from the pilots and commanders, and a strong Imperial-accent comes from the worldship, beginning to feed instructions to the ships. The J'rathi defenders of all classes begin assembling under the cover of the nebula, all three of the surviving Dreadnaughts and all of the other defense ships moving into formation. From the Worldship, a new ship emerges from the flight deck. An additional dreadnaught-class vessel, shielded from prying sensors by the nebula, begins making it's way around the planet and out towards space. Until now, the deadly geometry of the Imperial battle fleet assaulting the J'rathi worldship and its defending fleet has been largely angular and sharp-edged. Until now. Out of the roiling nebula cloud to the galactic west of the planet J'ra emerges a curved arc of gray metal, part of a massive vessel of some kind - so huge that it has its own equator, marked by a narrow access trench studded with turbolasers. The curved surface rotates until a disc-shaped depression manifests along the upper hemisphere, aimed at the worldship. The worldship lashes out with it's large spiderlike tendrils, as if to swat away the smaller sphere. Instead, the dozens of pulse cannons on each of the arms try to pick off Turbolasers on it's surface, mostly just causing narrow scars to be drawn across it's surface. An act of desperation, as the defender's fleet still continues it's regrouping maneuver in the cover of the nebula, cloaked vessels beginning to decloak as they reach their positions in the once-proud J'rathi battle-line. The clipped, cold voice of Grand Moff Tarkin can be heard over the open comm channels: "In the name of Emperor Palpatine, in the name of peace and order, the Galactic Empire hereby initiates the termination of the treacherous J'rathi." A pause, then he can be heard telling someone: "You may fire when ready." The J'rathi commander begins to respond, his own accent betraying his Imperial background, "You will reg--" is all he gets out before the Death Star's main weapon fires, seven thin green beams combining to form a superlaser that blasts right through the center of the Worldship and continues through to blast the planet to the core. The blast triggers shockwaves which rip the planet apart, and also tear the surrounding worldship into shreds. There is a massive ripple that is sent through the nebula, which then rushes in to fill the gap the planet left, as if it was just tidying itself up. A few moments later, the assembled J'rathi Defense Fleet angles in for an attack run on the Executor. The lead pair of Dreadnaughts fire their pulse cannons onto the ship's hull, punching through the ship's shields and tearing massive scars down the ship's hull, venting the contents of several decks into the nebula as they continue down the ship's long hull. The fighters skim along the surface, using their weapons to pick off turbolasers with little success. The cruisers duck under the hull, losing one member of their formation to engine wash from the Executor. The final dreadnaught follows the first two, but approaches the primary bridge. It's pulse cannons scissor across the 'neck' of the bridge, slicing clean through it and sending the primary bridge tumbling off into the nebula before continuing it's attack run down the hull. At this point, the badly damaged Executor is arcing around to lick its wounds when the remnants of the Sith Fleet and their accompanying fighters come out of the morasse of the nebula expanse to enclose the J'rathi ships in a circle. The TIE fighter squadrons sweep in toward the defense fleet, engines howling and lasers lancing outward as cover fire for the Executor. Then the black Sith Fleet destroyers start opening fire with their turbolasers, targeting the dreadnaughts. The J'rathi battle fleet turns to make another pass at the Executor, but as the Dreadnaughts turn, they are torn to shreds by the firepower of the Sith Fleet. For a few hectic moments, the defenders fire in vain at the clouds of enemies, pulse cannons lashing out in every direction before the ships succumb to the torrential green blasts. After a few minutes, there is only silence. The J'rathi defenders are completely wiped out, and the only shreds that remain of the race are hundreds of hull panels that have the faded and battle-worn symbol of the J'rathi Defensive Forces on them, which float amongst the corpses. Category:Reach of the Empire Logs